I've been considering for some time now whether it would be a good idea to add a category "favorites" as it will contain several, as its name indicates (suggests) favorites, but most of all because the recipes are not from Mrs. Amalia, but from friends, family members or even from back home. Fans keep asking me to put certain recipes on the blog, so here is a start with this Spinach pie, as I still get thumbs up when I bake this delicious pie! I sincerely hope you will enjoy it as much as we do here! And let me know if you find it a good idea also!
This Spinach pie is so good that we love it at any time of the day, just from the oven with a crispy salad at lunchtime or cooled down in the afternoon with a tea as a snack or straight from the fridge the next morning! This recipe is from a greek cooking book from years ago, I made some changes and the result is truly delightful, rich in fresh veggies and aromas wrapped in a dough made with fresh orange juice. I always us spinach and add whatever available in the fridge, preferably leeks, dill and flat leaf parsley.
You will need:
400 gr bread flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
160 ml fresh orange juice
90 gr oil (peanut or any other)
little salt
2 large bunches of fresh spinach
1 bunch of fresh scallions
1 leek
some fresh dill
generous fresh parsly
250 gr feta
60 - 65 gr unsalted butter
3 lightly beaten eggs of which you save
25 gr separate for brushing the pie
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
gallery of sequence of steps from mixture to ready baked!
How to prepare:
Chop and wash the spinach well (3 times so all dirt is gone),
Wash and chop the scallions and the leek,
In parts put the spinach in a wide (frying) pan and stir on moderate to high heat so the water it contains evaporates,
Place in a strainer, set aside for now,
Pour the olive oil in the frying pan and add scallions and leek to soften,
then add the spinach and stir on moderate heat, fry all together for 5-7 minutes,
Take off the heat and add butter, leave to melt, stir, add the eggs, stir
(the remainder is used for brushing the pie.),
Add dill, pepper and feta, stir,
Transfer to wide dish and chill in the fridge.
Place all ingredients for the dough in a kitchen machine and knead with a dough hook, it should become a soft dough,
Wrap in clingfilm and let it rest for at least half an hour.
Both can be prepared beforehand.
With a rolling pin, roll 2/3 rd of the dough out wider than the 25-26 diameter shallow pie form,
Roll the dough onto the rolling pin and unroll it in the form, with the edges hanging over the side,
Add the spinach mixture,
Fold the dough edges onto the mixture,
Roll out the 1/3rd of dough and close the pie,
Brush with the remainder of the egg,
Sprinkle with sesam seeds and with the help of a scissers make 3 to 4 cuts in the top of the pie,
Bake in pre heated hot (200°C) oven 25 to 30 minutes.
